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The Rescue of Jews in the Italian Zone of Occupied Croatia

Daniel Carpi

  1. Verax, “Italiani ed ebrei in Jugoslavia”, Politica Estera, I, Rome, 1944, pp. 21-29 (hereafter – Verax).
  2. After this article was already in print, I learned that “Verax” is Roberto Ducci, at that time head of the “Croatian Office” in the Foreign Ministry and today the Italian ambassador to the United Kingdom.
  3. Relazione sull’opera svolta dal Ministero degli Affari Esteri per la tutela delle Communità Ebraiche (1938-1943), n.p., n.d.
  4. Ibid., pp. 18-22.
  5. Jacques Sabille, “L’Attitude des Italiens envers les Juifs persecutes en Croatie”, Le Monde Juif, August-Septemebr 1951, pp. 5-8; October 1951, pp. 6-10.
  6. A slightly altered version was appended to Léon Poliakov’s book on the Jews under Italian occupation in Southern France, La condition des Juifs en France sous l’occupation Italienne, Paris, 1946. The book was also published in Yiddish (Paris, 1952), English (Paris, 1955) and Italian (Milan, 1956) (hereafter – Poliakov-Sabille).
  7. Daniel Carpi, “Le Toledot ha-Yehudim be-Split u-be-Sarayevo (Te’udot Hadashot min haShanim 1941-1942)”, Yalkut Moreshet, No. 10, 1969, pp. 109-121.
  8. Poliakov-Sabille, op. cit., pp. 164-165 (English edition).
  9. Report of the Italian Legation in Zagreb, August 6, 1942, Archives of the Italian Foreign Ministry (hereafter – AIFM).
  10. Verax, op. cit., p. 23.
  11. Poliakov-Sabille, op. cit., p. 166.
  12. Part of the protocol of this meeting is quoted in a memorandum of the Italian Foreign Ministry, dated October 20, AIFM.
  13. Poliakov-Sabille, op. cit., p. 167.
  14. Verax, op. cit., p. 25.
  15. Ibid.
  16. Poliakov-Sabille, op. cit., pp. 171-172.
  17. A report on the conversation which had taken place on October 27 was included in the cable sent by the Foreign Ministry to “Supersloda” and to the Italian Legation in Zagreb on October 31, 1942, AIFM.
  18. Poliakov-Sabille, op. cit., pp. 174-175.
  19. Ibid., pp. 176-177.
  20. Report by Castellani, November 18, 1942, AIFM.
  21. The Jewish representatives sent a letter of thanks for the visit which took place on November 27, 1942. It was attached to Castellani’s report of December 6, 1942 to the Foreign Office, AIFM.
  22. Memorandum to Ciano, November 3, 1942, AIFM.
  23. Report to “Supersloda”, November 8, 1942, AIFM.
  24. Letter to the Foreign Ministry, November 4, 1942, AIFM.
  25. Report of the Italian Consulate in Zagreb, August 22, 1942, AIFM.
  26. Poliakov-Sabille, op. cit., pp. 171-172.
  27. Letter of the Foreign Ministry to “Supersloda”, November 3, 1942, AIFM.
  28. Letters of “Supersloda” to the Italian Foreign Ministry, November 3, 5, and 20; December 13, 14, and 16, 1942, AIFM.
  29. Report of Castellani to the Foreign Ministry, December 3, 1942, AIFM.
  30. Minutes of the meeting of November 9, 1942, AIFM.
  31. Report of the Foreign Office to the General Staff, December 15, 1942, AIFM.
  32. Memorandum of March 14, 1943, to which a report of February 25, 1943, by the German Embassy in Rome and the reply by the Foreign Ministry dated March 9, 1943 are attached, AIFM.
  33. Poliakov-Sabille, op. cit., pp. 152-153.
  34. Copy of the testimony of Col. Carlà, which was given in the Italian War Office on March 6, 1945, is preserved in the Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine in Paris and I am indebted to that institute for making a copy of the document available to me.
  35. Verax, op. cit., p. 27.
  36. A Photostat of the document was published in the pamphlet, Državna Komisija za Utvrdivanje Zlocina Okupatora I Njhovih Pomagaća, Saopćenje o Talijanskim Zločnima Protiv Jugoslavije I Njenih Naroda (The Atrocities Committed by the Italians Against Yugoslavia and her Peoples), Belgrade 1946, p. 165.
  37. Reports of February 27, March 9 and 20, 1943, AIFM.
  38. Jaša Roman, “Jevreji U Logoru Na Rabu I Njihovo Ukjučivanje U Narodnooslobodilači Rat” (Jews in the Rab Camp and Their Participation in the Liberation War), Zbornik, No. 2, 1973, (hereafter – Romano), p. 70.
  39. Correspondence between “Supersloda” and the Foreign Ministry, March 20, 25, and 31; April 5 and 16, 1943, AIFM.
  40. Romano, op. cit., p. 70.
  41. Letters of “Supersloda” to the Foreign Ministry, July 28 and August 29, 1943, AIFM.
  42. Romano, op. cit., pp. 70-72; Zdenko Löwenthal (ed.), Zločini fašističkih okupatora I njihovih pomagača protiv jevreja u Jugoslaviji (The Crimes of the Fascist Occupants and Their Collaborators Against Jews in Yugoslavia), Belgrade, 1957, p. 23.
  43. These children were the subject of lengthy negotiations between the leaders of the Jews interned in Arbe and the Italian authorities. The former sought to transfer the children to Turkey (and from there to Palestine). Permission was not granted, due to the opposition of the Mufti of Jerusalem. I plan to deal with this episode, which lies outside the purview of this lecture, in an article entitled “The Negotiations Regarding the Transfer of Jewish Children from Croatia to Turkey and Eretz Israel in the Year 1943”, which will appear in the forthcoming volume (XII) of Yad Vashem Studies.
  44. Ilva Vaccari, Villa Emma, Modena, 1960.